TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A 19-year-old Oklahoma man convicted of stabbing his parents and three siblings to death was sentenced Thursday to five life terms in prison to run consecutively, meaning that even with the possibility of parole he likely won't ever be released.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday welcomed the killing of a leading Syrian weapons scientist but declined to comment on reports his government was behind the fatal bombing. General Aziz Asbar, head of a Syrian government weapons research centre, was killed along with his driver when the bomb hit his car on Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Asbar headed the Maysaf research centre in Hama, which was hit by Israeli air strikes last month and in September last year, the Observatory said.

BERLIN (AP) — Determining why a vintage plane crashed in the Swiss Alps will be challenging since the 79-year-old aircraft did not have black boxes and was traveling in an area without frequent radar readings when it plunged into a mountain, killing all 20 of the people on board, investigators said Sunday.

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Texas doctor has killed himself during a confrontation with local police, authorities said. Joseph Pappas, the man suspected of killing prominent Houston surgeon Mark Hausknecht, shot himself as two officers surrounded him on Friday morning, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters. Authorities had been searching for Mr Pappas since Tuesday, when a tipster identified him from a surveillance video taken on the day of the shooting.

HOUSTON (AP) — Friends and neighbors of a Houston man accused of killing one of former President George H.W. Bush's doctors said that much of the suspect's life was a mystery to them, describing him as respectful and polite, but withdrawn.